And, guess what? You, who either don’t want to see any more refugees coming to America or at least want a say in who we are accepting and whether they are placed in your town, are screwed.
Sorry to sound vulgar, but it is true, because the other side is highly organized and you have no national voice helping to guide you on what to do locally to push back.
It is make or break time! You’ve got a few more weeks to get your message to your local mayors, city councils, and governors.
And, locally is where the refugee contractors are making their big move now (in addition tosuing the President over the September EOthat supposedly will give states an opportunity to opt-out of resettlement).
I’m not naming names, but for those of you hoping a national immigration control organization located in Washington, DC (or anywhere in America) will focus on the refugee issue and tell you what to do, forget it!
You are on your own.
And, notice where the debate is! It isn’t on the issue of whether we should be bringing tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands!) of refugees to the US annually from countries that hate us; it isn’t on whether the whole program is unconstitutional and needs to be dumped and rewritten (if we even want more refugees); it is on which of your towns will be changed forever and who gets to decide that!
Trump’s EO was far from perfect, but he is concerned about the secrecy that has heretofore been the watchword of refugee resettlement decision-making in America. The contractors, which have monopolized all resettlement in the US for decades, love calling the shots from Washington and are fighting tooth and nail not to lose that power.
The nine federal contractors*** and their friends throughout the Open Borders Industry are highly organized with an extensive grassroots network, so when Trump opened the door with his September Executive Order about local and state governments having some say in the decision-making process they have turned on their networks and their people have gone to work.
Indeed, they expect Trump to be gone so they can go back to business as usual of changing America one town at a time, their Executive Order pushback has become a key element in their strategy.
I’ve always hated the expression, but since Trump handed them a lemon they are making lemonade!
Here is the first of many examples, Mary Poole the refugee advocate who opened the door to a new resettlement office in Montana says it best.
Missoula refugee resettlement agency wades through Trump order
Missoula is one of roughly 190 communities in the U.S. that resettle refugees. Only a handful of states don’t. So far none has banned further resettlement, and letters of support are reported from city councils in the likes of Decatur, Georgia; and Alexandria, Virginia.
In 2016 Mary Poole successfully pushed for the opening of an International Rescue Committee subcontractor office for Missoula.
Gary Herbert, Utah’s Republican governor, wrote Trump a letter requesting he “allow us to accept more international refugees in Utah.”
Democratic governors Jay Inslee of Washington and Kate Brown of Oregon have voiced support for resettlement, and on Tuesday Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, announced North Dakota would continue to receive refugees “as long as local governments agree to it,” the Grand Forks Herald reported.
Such responses underline what Soft Landing Missoula’s Mary Poole sees as a bright side to the executive order.
“While it makes an additional hurdle and roadblock, and it’s unfortunate, I think what we’re really going to see are people going to bat for (accepting refugees) in a way we haven’t seen before,” she said. “I’m pretty excited to see that visual representation nationwide to show how important this is.”
And so they are!
Their people are pushing local governments everywhere to shove it back at Trump and put in writing that they WANT MORE REFUGEES!
Some examples that have come across my desk in recent days:
And, in Tennessee the Tennessee Office of Refugees run by Catholic Charities has sent out an e-mail with contact information for TN mayors to make it easier for their anti-Trump EO supporters to weigh in:
Contact your local elected officials to let them know their constituents support refugee resettlement.
Chattanooga City Mayor
Andy Berke
(423) 643-7800
mayor@chattanooga.gov
Hamilton County Mayor
Jim Coppinger
(423) 209-6100
Email: hamiltontn.gov/Mayor/form.aspx
Knoxville City Mayor
Madeline Rogero
(865) 215-2040
mayor@knoxvilletn.gov
Knox County Mayor
Glenn Jacobs
(865) 215-2005
Email: knoxcounty.org/email/email_new.php?email_name=county.mayor
Memphis City Mayor
Jim Strickland
(901) 636-6000
mayor@memphistn.gov
Shelby County Mayor
Lee Harris
(901) 222-2000
officeofthemayor@shelbycountytn.gov
Nashville Metro Mayor
John Cooper
(615) 862-6000
You can be sure that information like that is going out in your state too!
Because you aren’t going to hear it from any organization giving you marching orders….
…. my message to you is get to your local government and speak up before they do—a big challenge because they have a huge head start on you!
Contact your governor too!
Even if you think that your voices won’t be heard, tell your local and state elected officials what you think anyway, otherwise they will assume that supporting the idea of more refugees for your town or city is a political freebie for them!
Oh, and if you want to make a big splash—challenge your local elected officials in the next election. Even if you think you can’t win the first time out, your local media will be forced to report on your platform.
A very simple message to your elected officials is this: care for refugees where they live in the world, and let’s take care of poor and vulnerable Americans here first!
***The nine federal contractors listed below have dozens of subcontractors working under them around the country. So although your local resettlement agency has a name not listed here, you can be sure they work for one of the nine major contractors.
They are all very Leftwing political organizations, but the most actively anti-Trump in recent months are in red. You might argue that the Bishops are very political and they are, but I’ve noticed that they are laying low these days (there are a large number of Catholic Trump supporters) and USCRI has been unusually quiet.
Further confirmation that the latest legal gambit by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and its fellow federal refugee contractors Church World Service and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service*** is about making money!
Over the last few days I told you here,here and hereabout the lawsuit filed this week by the three federal refugee contractors and now I see there is a follow-up appeal by HIAS for guess what—money.
There is one important point you need to know about refugee resettlement, and one that wasaddressed here by David James,that the contractors don’t explain to their groupies….
They are not required to remain even for a day in the place they are resettled.
Of course if they stay for a few months they get a lot of help from the local sub-contractor to get signed-up for their services (aka welfare, etc), but they are not required to stay where placed.
The contractor’s duties generally end in just a few months after arrival anyway, and the refugees become the responsibility of your local/state services for the poor.
Additionally, the US State Department permits contractors to place refugees anywhere within a hundred mile radius of their nearest office.
In HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield’s e-mail appeal for money on Friday he makes it sound like refugees will not be reunited with their family members who came before them if Trump succeeds in his dastardly plan. That just isn’t so.
***Update***I have been informed that the EO specifically says it does not apply to family reunification placements.
Also, The US does not block anyone from moving!
It has happened time and again that refugees simply pack up and move to another city or state at will. (Which is why, although well-intended, the Trump EO really won’t accomplish what I think the designers hoped it would.)
And, asMr. James reported, the feds can override the wishes of a state or local government.
But, if scaring donations out of people is the goal, then telling their supporters that Trump will block refugees from joining family members is a pretty good talking point.
Here is a bit of Hetfield’s plea for donations:
Here’s why our lawsuit is so important: The administration’s unprecedented action could prevent refugees from joining their U.S.-based families – even though many have waited for years to reunite. It could block communities from welcoming refugees, even if they have long-standing and successful resettlement programs. And it could prevent resettlement agencies from maintaining local affiliate offices that provide essential services to refugees during their first critical years in our country.
So, send us money!
Click here to make a gift of $18 or more right now to stand with HIAS and fight the Trump administration’s unprecedented attempt to close America’s door to thousands of refugees.
For more than a hundred years, our shared Jewish and American values have guided our work helping refugees build new lives of safety and freedom in the United States. It is these values that compel us not to look away from this intolerance – and to take a stand on behalf of those in need of our assistance.
President Trump’s executive action is an insult to the values upon which this nation was founded, and we’re calling on you to stand with us as we fight in court for refugees seeking safe havens in American communities. Please, we’re counting on you to step up at this crucial moment:
Did we mention? Send money!
Make a gift of $18 or more now – the need has never been more urgent – to support refugees and asylum seekers in their quest for safety and freedom.
*** In case you think I’m picking on HIAS, I wrote about Church World Serviceyesterday and I’ll shortly have a post on LIRS! Those two ‘Christian charities’ are even more heavily dependent on you (taxpayers of America) to keep their refugee businesses flush with cash than is HIAS!
It is as simple as this: HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) wants to continue to call the shots from Washington, DC about where refugees will be placed in America.
You, who live in cities large and small are expected to shut up and let the professionals and experts determine which third world refugees will be resettled in which communities.
Never mind that as we pointed out here, the President’s Executive Order really doesn’t do much and never mind that there are yet no published guidelines from the federal government about how the Executive Order would be carried out, HIAS is nevertheless getting a jump on it by beating their anti-Trump drums and filing a lawsuit.
Clearly they have no interest in listening to what citizens have to say about their community being forever changed by federal contractors working for the US State Department.
I suspect this new lawsuit is all about raising more money from an outraged constituency and I’ll tell you why I think that after you see what HIAS said yesterday.
Here is Mark Hetfield, HIAS CEO in an e-mail announcing the lawsuit:
Dear Friend,
In September, President Trump issued an executive order (EO) purporting to give state and local governments the authority to block refugee resettlement in their jurisdictions. This state-by-state, city-by-city refugee ban not only violates federal law, but also keeps refugees apart from their families, and prevents willing and able American communities like yours from welcoming people in need of safety. [Cry me a river!—ed]
This morning, HIAS, joined by two other refugee agencies, filed suit to stop this latest attempt to shut down refugee resettlement.
Today HIAS, together with two other refugee resettlement agencies, took President Trump to court over his recent executive order giving state and local officials authority to block refugee resettlement in their jurisdictions.
HIAS, Church World Service (CWS), and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) are suing the administration because it is attempting to enact a state-by-state, city-by-city refugee ban.
[….]
The president’s order, signed on September 26, would require resettlement agencies, including HIAS, CWS, and LIRS, to obtain written consent from all localities and states in which they plan to resettle refugees. If written consent cannot be obtained, it could prevent resettlement agencies from maintaining local affiliate offices that provide essential services to refugees already in the area.
According to the complaint, filed this morning in U.S. District Court in Maryland, the executive order violates federal law, which requires federal agencies to make decisions about where refugees are to be placed within the United States according to a detailed list of factors, leaving no room for state and local governments to veto such decisions.
What factors? What are the detailed list of factors on which the feds (with their contractors) base their placement decisions? Shouldn’t we be given that information? We are the ones paying for it in more ways than one!
HIAS continues…
HIAS sued the Trump administration in 2017, when the president’s executive order called for halting refugee resettlement and banning people from seven majority Muslim countries with an exception for non-Muslim religious minorities.
Melissa Keaney, Senior Litigation Staff Attorney for IRAP called the order “a back-door attempt to decimate the refugee resettlement program.” and noted that a single local politician should not be able to stop Americans who have been waiting years to reunite with family members. [Their willingness to flat out lie is disgusting! A single local politician could not stop resettlement!—ed]
“Trump’s War on Refugees” as they call it, has been very lucrative for HIAS!
I suspected that HIAS, and maybe some of the other contractors, was financially hurting as the Trump Administration has severely cut back on the number of paying clients (aka refugees) that the contractors are paid to ‘care for’ for a brief time, but I was wrong.
HIAS is better off financially today than it was at the pinnacle of the Obama Administration when refugees were pouring in by the tens of thousands.
We are getting into the weeds here, but hang in there.
I went back to the last four years of HIAS’s IRS Form 990s and guess what I confirmed? HIAS is richer today than when Obama’s refugee spigot was wide open.
Their federal dollars have fallen only slightly while their private fundraising has mushroomed with the addition of over $10 million to their income between 2015 and 2018.
They are making money hand over fist because Donald Trump is in the White House!
In addition they are paying out more in salaries and giving less to other organizations.
Let me be clear. If HIAS was a truly charitable organization that was not partially funded by taxpayers, I wouldn’t care about where their money came from, where they spent it, or how large their salaries are, but we, the taxpayers of America, are involuntarily paying for their overtly political activities and thus have a right to know how our money is being spent.
Here is a summary of some key data points on their IRS forms (I’m rounding numbers to make it easier to follow the money!):
2015 (Obama year)
$20.4 million from government grants
$15.2 million from other sources of income
Total income: $40.6 million(other smaller sources of income included)(Conservatively 50% federally funded because some of their other smaller amounts of income are from taxpayers too.)
$8.5 million passed through to other organizations
$12.2 million paid in salaries (salaries do not include other payroll expenses)
$375,000 CEO (Hetfield) compensation (includes other related compensation)
2016 (Obama’s top refugee ‘welcoming’ year)
$24.5 million from government grants
$17.4 million from other sources of income
Total income: $45.3 million(54% federally funded)
$12.2 million passed through to other organizations
$13.9 million paid in salaries
$344,000 CEO total compensation
2017 (Trump takes over)
$20.7 million from government grants
$19.9 million from other sources of income
Total income: $48.4 million (43% federally funded)
$8.9 million passed through to other organizations
$15.9 million paid in salaries
$322,000 CEO total compensation (took a little pay cut)
2018 (Trump)
$19.1 million from government grants (just about what they were raking in during Obama’s 2015!)
$27.4 million from other sources of income
Total income: $50 million (38% federally funded)
$6.6 million passed through to other organizations
$14.9 million paid in salaries
$330,000 CEO total compensation
Bottomline: HIAS is wealthier today ($10 million wealthier) than they were four years ago and I suspect they are fully aware of how the President, and their campaign against him, has enormously helped their fundraising operations.
The lawsuit will likely bring in gobs more money for them!
And, just so you know, I’ll be looking at the Form 990s of the other ‘religious charity’ partners in this lawsuit.
I’ve been trying to keep track of which governors are responding to pressure from resettlement contractorsand telling the President that they want more refugees.
So far governors in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington have sent letters to the White House begging the President for MORE refugees.
Never mind that there isn’t yet a formal structure in place to carryout Trump’s Executive Orderthat would supposedly give an opportunity for some local/state say-so when the federal government sends new refugees out to 49 states that have refugee programs in place.
Republican Governor Doug Burgum: We will take refugees if my cities run by the Democrats want refugees.
(Wyoming is the only state in the nation that receives zero refugees year after year.)
North Dakota’s Republican governor has weighed in, sort of, as he “embraces the order” and is leaving it to his local communities to say if they want more or not.
Of course if cities are run by Democrat mayors (this is why you all need to get engaged and run for local offices!), the mayor will beg for refugees he claims they need as low wage worker bees.
North Dakota Gov. Burgum embraces Trump refugee order
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Gov. Doug Burgum announced Tuesday he’s embracing an executive order from President Donald Trump that gives states and cities the authority to refuse to accept refugees.
Burgum said in a statement that North Dakota will continue to receive refugees — as long as local jurisdictions agree to it.
“The governor believes it should be a local decision,” Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki said.
Advocates for refugees said they didn’t believe any of the state’s largest cities, where refugees typically settle, would turn them away.
“I can only speculate but we’re hopeful,” said Shirley Dykshoorn, a Lutheran Social Services vice president. “We have unprecedented workforce needs. We have employers who desperately need employees and they are happy to have refugees.”
When I caught this news at the Minneapolis Star Tribune about a program for lonely senior refugees, not refugees who came decades ago and grew old here, but senior citizens we admit through the US Refugee Admissions Program, it reminded me to tell you how your tax dollars are used.
Twice a month, elders from the area’s East African community gather here for a shared halal meal and a program that can range from citizenship to weaving to winter preparedness. [I’ll bet the emphasis is on citizenship and registering to vote!—ed]
The goal is to help break the social isolation experienced by members of the older immigrant population, many of whom speak little English and stay home to care for grandchildren while younger adults in the family are at work.
[….]
About 20 people were on hand last week, including Abdi Matan, who helped organize the program through the nonprofit Horn of Africa Aid and Rehabilitation Action Network. Matan came to St. Peter six years ago after working in Somalia for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He also worked for the U.N. in refugee camps in Somalia and Kenya.
“Minnesota is the next home for Somalis,” he said with a big grin. “We have really enjoyed this program for socialization.”
Somali elders, he said, often have a hard time adjusting to their new home.
[….]
Mohamed Omar Ali, 73, was a herdsman in Somalia. He arrived in St. Peter about five years ago. [Arrived in the US at age 68, sure will be a real asset to the US workforce which is the usual excuse for the program in the first place!—ed]
Agencies paying for this program are all taxpayer-funded including of course Lutheran Social Service of MN!
Mahoney [Leah Mahoney, Minnesota Department of Health] said she believes this is the first program of its kind in rural Minnesota and hopes that other communities with East African populations will take notice. Support for the program has come from the state Health Department, as well as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, the city of St. Peter and the Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging.
First, senior citizens admitted as refugees are eligible for SSI (Supplemental Security Income) from Social Security. Read about it here.
However, in addition to individual benefits, states that welcome “elder” refugees receive help directly from the federal treasury (from you again) to help them cope with needy senior citizen refugees.
It would take a lot of time to go through the entire list of over a hundred countries from which we receive refugees to get to the total. But here are a few numbers from the Refugee Processing Center.
In the last five years we admitted 748 seniors (over 65 years old) from Bhutan, Burma 640 seniors, DR Congo 777, and Somalia 273.
Now get a load of this!
States are given federal money to help take care of refugees aged 60 and older.
Do a little math and see how much the elder refugees are costing taxpayers in just this one portion of the welfare services available to them.
The FY 2020 allocations to states and replacement designees are based on the number of ORR-eligible individuals aged 60 or older who arrived and were served in FY 2018, as reported in the ORR Refugee Arrivals Data System (RADS).
The chart below documents the number of eligible individuals served in each state in FY 2018 and the corresponding funding allocations for the SOR program for FY 2020.
Here is just a bit of the chart in a screenshot. But be sure to open the chart and see the whole list! It gets worse. I wondered if this is sweetener for many states? New Hampshire 4 refugees $75,000 from the feds!
This is the kind of handout you have been supplying through your tax dollars for years and possibly decades!
